What can replace food coloring for soap. Dyes for handmade soap, types, comparison. You may be interested

Dyes are one of the main tools of the soapmaker. White soap is pretty boring and monotonous. And with the help of dyes, you can make the soap more joyful. You can mix the colors and get new ones, it all depends on your imagination!

BASE SOAP DYES

Dyes are one of the main tools of the soapmaker. White soap is pretty boring and monotonous. And with the help of dyes, you can make the soap more joyful. You can mix the colors and get new ones, it all depends on your imagination! Exists different types dyes, so let's look at all types of dyes and the features of their use.

Dyes are different - water- and fat-soluble, natural, pigments, mother-of-pearl, etc.

NATURAL DYES (you can read in more detail)

If you want the soap to be as natural and useful as possible, then dry herbs, leaves, flowers, spices, oils, cocoa and more can be used for staining.

Attention: ADDING DRY INGREDIENTS (herbs, leaves, flowers, coffee, cocoa, spices, etc.) is necessary only in the GRIND FORM, THE SMALLER, THE MORE UNIFORM COLOR WILL BE !!! Added herbs and flowers, over time, give yellow-cinnamon blotches in the soap !!!

WATER-SOLUBLE SOAP DYES (in more detail)

These are common food dyes, absolutely harmless to the skin, economical and very easy to use. There are dry, liquid and gel.

Before use, dry dyes must first be diluted in water, and then drip a little into the soap base, stirring constantly until the desired shade and color saturation is obtained. Liquid and gel dyes are ready to use.

Ideal for coloring transparent substrates as give uniform, clean and delicate shades in the finished soap, while maintaining its full transparency.

The MINUS of these dyes is that if you want to make a multicolor soap with their help, then over time (after 1-2 weeks) the boundaries of the layers will gradually start MIXING, SPREADING (migrating). To avoid this, use pigments for multi-colored soaps.

Titanium dioxide is used to give the transparent soap base its whiteness and opacity. Depending on the amount of titanium dioxide added, the soap is completely matte or slightly "hazy", which allows you to create different visual effects. Before using titanium dioxide for staining a transparent base, it is necessary to DILUTE beforehand, if this is not done, then there will be white dots in the soap. But if you don't want to mess around with self-staining the soap base, then it's much easier to buy a white soap base that is already dyed with titanium dioxide in a production environment.

FAT-SOLUBLE DYES

These dyes are used primarily for coloring fat-based products, where they give a clean, bright, matte color (lip balms, oil tiles, etc.).

These dyes are insoluble in water, but they dissolve well in base oils and glycerin.

Like water-soluble dyes, fat-soluble dyes are recommended to be used by first preparing an oil solution from a small amount of powder, thoroughly rubbing it, and then gradually dripping into the base with constant stirring until the desired color is obtained.

These dyes behave great in a soap base (but MIGERATE in multi-layer soaps!), Lipsticks, lip gloss, various balms. In this case, the color will turn out to be bright, saturated, resistant to light, and will not spread.

It can be used when dyeing soap from scratch, but it must be taken into account that in an alkaline environment the color may change and eventually differ from the original.

PIGMENT DYES (in more detail)

Of course, it's not even worth mentioning that you need to choose cosmetic pigments for dyeing your soap. The quality and purification of pigments is very different - after all, in addition to cosmetics and soaps, pigments are used in industrial paints, for painting cars, etc. Pigments DO NOT MIGRATE in soap over time, retain the brightness and purity of color.

Pigments are dry, liquid and pigmented pastes.

Liquid pigments are ready to use. They do not need to be bred first. If the colors are very saturated for you, then you can dilute a small amount of pigment in water, and then add it to the base drop by drop, until the desired shade is obtained. Makes the transparent soap base more cloudy.

Dry pigments - Transparent soap base is cloudy. Due to the fact that it is an opaque pigment, soap with it acquires a special texture. Do not migrate. Have high concentration and paint well. To avoid the appearance of lumps in the base, we recommend pre-mixing the dry dye with a small amount of glycerin or base oil and grind thoroughly.

Pigment pastes are a masterbatch. In terms of cost, pigment paste is much more expensive than liquid pigments, but if used correctly, it can significantly save money (good buy!). True, before adding to the soap base, they must be diluted with water, otherwise the base will not be colored evenly, and the pigment paste will turn into small colored particles in the soap. Before use, you must first dilute / rub thoroughly so that there are no lumps in soap / water or glycerin 1: 3, 1: 4.

NEON PIGMENTS (more details)

These pigments for soap have appeared quite recently, in memory of the disco 80s, but they are already popular with soap makers and have become a mainstream trend. Neon pigments produce vibrant, long-lasting colors and are very economical to use. You can also paint on soap with neon pigments.

Pearl (miki) (more details can be read)

Most often, mother-of-pearl is used to decorate soap. Delicate pearlescent color gives the soap a luxury and presentable look. The best effect is achieved when added to a transparent soap base; in a white base, their shine is almost invisible. Mother-of-pearl is not subject to migration, which means that the color obtained with their help will not creep over the multilayer soap, and you will get a very elegant, sparkling one. With the help of a brush, you can go over the top of the soap with mother-of-pearl and you will get a spectacular texture.

GLITTERS

Glitter (from the English glitter, in translation "shine") - this term is called small reflective particles used in fashion, cosmetics, handicrafts. In common parlance, these are "sparkles", most often of a round shape, similar to confetti, but there are also polygonal outlines (square, pentagonal, hexagonal).

Multi-colored, bright glitters very much decorate decorative soap, especially transparent, giving it a festive look. In addition, glitter can be used to create homemade cosmetics such as eyeshadow, lip gloss, or lipstick. Glitters are also widely used in body and nail art. And how good are the sparkling ones Christmas decorations-balls, Christmas trees, snowflakes and stars, made by hand!

If you want your soap to be completely natural, brew it from scratch and use natural dyes. The main charm of these dyes is that almost every woman has them at home. With them, you will not get very bright saturated colors, rather delicate, pastel shades.

Clays can be used as natural dyes.

For example, pink clay gives a pretty color. It also seems to be called "faded rose" - a very delicate pastel shade of pink.

Before use, the clay must first be ground in oil - almost like pigment dyes.

The charcoal in the soap gives a color ranging from light gray to black, depending on the concentration. First, the coal must be ground into dust (in a coffee grinder, for example), and mixed with glycerin.

Another example of using pink clay - the color is even softer, because the soap itself was white.

The orange blotches in this soap are tomato paste. About 1 tsp. tomato paste on 200 grams of soapy mass gives such a pretty color.

In pumpkin soap, the concentration of the paste is higher and the color is more intense.

Blue clay gives a gray tint, and green clay gives a greenish tint. A green color can also be obtained by using parsley juice to prepare an alkaline solution.

Many decoctions of herbs, for example, St. John's wort, when used in soap from scratch instead of water, give a brown color of varying degrees of intensity.

Cinnamon gives a deep dark brown color in glycerin soap from scratch. However, if your soap has a light shade, then cinnamon will make the color of the soap milky chocolate.

You can use mustard oil, sea buckthorn oil, or spices such as turmeric for a yellow hue.

Wine doesn't necessarily make your soap ruby ​​red. Rather reddish brown.

Experiment and get creative. And then the perfect soap will not escape you!

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For more attractiveness and originality, soap is usually added various dyes that give it a finished look. You can even say that the dye is one of the most important components of the soap. After all, a person, first of all, is attracted by the color of the soap, then its smell, and then other properties.

In addition to basic dyes, various soap decorations are also used in soap making, for example, beads,.

There are several types of dyes: cosmetic pigments, liquid pigments, fat- and water-soluble food colors. Each of the above dyes has its own characteristics that must be taken into account when making soap. All these dyes accentuate the curves and reliefs of the soap, paint it in all the colors of the rainbow and give the work a complete look.

Cosmetic pigments for soap

Natural dyes for soaps. Certain natural ingredients are natural and absolutely harmless dyes. Sea buckthorn oil gives the soap orange-yellow hues, the alcohol solution of Chlorophyllipt and henna will color the soap green, chocolate - coffee, curry powder - yellow. Chamomile essential oil and blue clay will help create bluish hues. The soap can be dyed black with activated charcoal.

Dry cosmetic pigments.
This type of dye gives a beautiful and very stable color that does not migrate. Therefore, pigments are used to give clarity to the pattern and when using the soap-in-soap technology. To avoid the appearance of lumps in the base, this dye is pre-mixed with a small amount of glycerin or oil.


Liquid cosmetic pigments.

These are dry cosmetic pigments that have been previously diluted in base oil... Therefore, such a dye does not form ugly lumps in the soap base. These pigments also do not migrate.

Water- and fat-soluble food coloring for soaps.

These dyes do not need to be diluted, they are sold ready-made. With the help of fat- and water-soluble dyes, uniform, very beautiful, pure shades can be achieved. You can find on sale dyes of brown, green, blue, yellow and red colors, which can be used in pure form or mixed with each other.

All food colors are very easy to use and absolutely harmless to the skin.

These dyes are very economical. For 100 g of soap base, 2 to 7 drops of food coloring are enough. However, it has one big drawback. If you use this dye to make multi-colored soaps, then over time the dye begins to migrate (the color boundaries gradually blur). Therefore, food coloring is preferable to use in the manufacture of monochrome soaps. If you plan to preserve the transparency of the soap base, then it is necessary to use food-grade water-soluble dyes, since other types of dyes cloud the transparent soap base.

Titanium dioxide

Titanium dioxide.
It is a non-migratory pigment. It is used in the manufacture of medicines, food products, medicines. Titanium dioxide imparts opacity and whiteness to the transparent base. If you add a small amount of titanium dioxide to the soap base, then the base will only become slightly cloudy, a larger amount of this dye can make the soap base completely matte. With titanium dioxide, you can create a wide variety of visual effects.

If you are engaged in home soap making, then you probably want to use only the best, healthy and natural ingredients for your soap. The same applies to the use of dyes for soap. If desired, soap from scratch can be given almost any desired color using only natural dyes. The only difference is more muted, pastel and natural shades. Those. flashy red or mind-blowing purple with the help of only natural remedies will not be possible.

As natural dyes for coloring soap, you can use decoctions of herbs and flowers, dry plant extracts, cosmetic clays, various spices and much of what can be found in the kitchen. And as a bonus, any addition to the soap will carry additional properties.

One of the most common is adding cosmetic clay to soap from scratch. Clays are red, pink, blue, green, yellow, as well as black and white, and each has its own properties. However, you should not take their names literally, since in reality they do not always coincide. For example, blue clay in most cases is gray, and accordingly gives the soap a gray or dirty blue color, and white (or kaolin) will never make the soap snow-white, most likely it will be light beige.
The addition of clay to the soap gives the soap a mild exfoliation effect. Moreover, according to my observations, if the soap is cooked hot, then the peeling is really easy, and if it is cold, then the clay gives an already noticeable scrubbing effect (has anyone else noticed this ?!).

And yet, clay can give a different shade in soaps of different compositions. Once I made a whipped soap based on shea butter, it was exactly about 50% in the composition - accordingly, the soap itself was white, and the pink clay added to it gave it a soft pink pastel and a very pleasant shade (sorry the photo was not preserved! ). And here (photo on the left) pink clay with a different basic composition of oils.

And green clay and sea buckthorn oil - in the first photo, and Ghassul clay - in the second one took part in these myltsy as natural dyes.


Adding ground coffee to the soap (I had it NOT sleepy!) Gives it a dark brown color and makes it a very powerful scrub! And if you add not grains, but the drink itself, even a very strong one, then the color will not be so saturated. Pay attention - in the second case, I did not dissolve the lye in the coffee, but added it a little after the gel and before putting it into the mold.


Dark brown color and amazing caring qualities will give the soap chocolate or cocoa beans. If you prepare the soap hot, you will also get an amazing chocolate flavor. With the cold method of making chocolate soap, the smell is weaker and more indistinct.

If you do not overdo it with chocolate, then the soap will not stain the foam, but the washcloth can stain. In this soap, I took 600g. oils - 25g. grated cocoa beans.

Positive green, in contrast to the dirty tint that green clay gives, can be obtained by adding parsley juice or barley extract as a dye for soap (photo on the left with the addition of barley extract). They are added with the hot method, little by little, after the soap has passed the gel stage. Or use laurel unrefined oil(photo on the right), which also gives the soap a strong aroma and antiseptic properties.


Sunny orange yields sea buckthorn oil (choose for this oil from the pulp, not from the seeds, it is more intense in color and is literally added in drops).

Or buriti oil. It also produces a bright orange color. Add these oils to the fat when making soap hot. So they will retain all their valuable qualities.

My next experiment with natural dyes was with grape skin extract. Well, it gives such an incredible color when dissolved in water that I could not help but try it in soap! But in the soap, everything turned out to be not so simple. It's no secret that the alkaline environment that soap has is capable of doing various tricks with it. And so it happened. After adding a rich burgundy, the color of a good red wine, a solution of dry extract to the prepared soap, it (the soap) turned dark blue! I, of course, was surprised and upset by such metamorphoses, but I interfered with my soap and went to bed. Imagine my surprise when in the morning it changed color to more adequate to the added grapes. But! When slicing, the soap turned out to be still dark blue inside, although after a while it acquired a pleasant color again. Here it is (left). And on the right is soap with the addition of red wine.


Important! I very rarely (almost never!) Do not dilute alkali in decoctions, extracts, hydrolates and other usefulness. Firstly, I do not see the point in this, tk. lye will "eat" all the useful substances, and secondly, the color of the soap, as a rule, after such games will be, excuse me, "a la kakash" and no dye, especially natural, can be corrected. Therefore, when I write "add a little after the gel and at the end of the preparation", I mean the following.
We replace a part (about 1/3) of the estimated amount of liquid with a decoction, extract or other useful thing and add it to the soap after it has passed the gel stage gradually and little by little. That is, if according to the recipe we have 200g. liquid, then 135g. of purified water, we will dissolve alkali, and another 65 g. add later in the form of, for example, a decoction. Thus, you will receive the properties of herbs and extracts that are maximally preserved in soap and a pleasant shade.

Of course, these are not all my experiments and not all possible options for using natural dyes for soap from scratch, so this post will soon be continued!

Thanks for stopping by, have a nice day!

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What dyes are used for soap self made? Which dyes are better and which ones are worse? Read about all this on this page!

This article focuses entirely on colorants in base soaps. Let's be honest that with all the variety of dyes for soap at home from the base, it is better to use water-soluble liquid dyes, glitter and mother-of-pearl. What dyes exist, you can see here, and how to make soap with your own hands. But first things first.

Water Soluble Liquid Dyes

Water-soluble liquid cosmetic dyes. It is very easy to work with them: 1-2 drops per 100 grams of base, stir a little - and the desired uniform color is achieved. However, if you are making a multicolored soap, over time the color will "creep" all over the soap. In some cases it is very beautiful, in some it spoils the whole idea.

They mix well with each other, you can see the options for the colors in the plate:

Zenicolor transparent non-migratory dyes

Paste colorants, packed in convenient 30 gram tubes. There are five basic colors in the set, which, when mixed, give many shades. The kit also includes a plastic card to accurately measure the amount of dye. Thanks to this, you can write down a recipe for a good color and repeat it at any time. One set is enough for coloring 13-15 kilograms.

Official site - zenicolor.com

Oil-based synthetic food colors

Very economical to use. Produces pure bright colors. The color in the soap migrates over time, you will notice the results of this process within a week.

Examples of colors:

  1. Ice blue
  2. Juicy strawberries
  3. Sunny lemon
  4. Ripe raspberries
  5. Green grapes
  6. Northern blueberry
  7. Peach nectar
  8. Black currant
  9. Chocolate dessert

Liquid pigments

Soap dyes that are already mixed with glycerin. Very easy to use, no need to be diluted in oil first. The transparent base is made more cloudy, does not migrate.

Cosmetic pigments

Cosmetic pigments give a stable, beautiful color, in most cases it will not creep, and the clear boundaries of your multi-colored soap will remain in place. It is advisable to first thoroughly grind with any oil, glycerin or alcohol so that they do not settle in the form of lumps at the bottom of the soap. Makes the transparent base more cloudy.

Cosmetic mother-of-pearl

Will add shine and shine to the soap. Used in the cosmetic industry to make gloss, eyeshadow, etc. Better to add to a transparent base, because in matte, their shine is less noticeable. The color obtained with the help of mother-of-pearl does not creep on the soap.

Glitters (sequins)

They are larger than mother-of-pearl, do not change the color of the base, but add shine. They look more effective in a transparent base tinted with liquid dyes.

Titanium dioxide

Titanium dioxide is used to make the transparent base dull and white. If you just pour it and stir it in the base, it can settle in small lumps. Therefore, it is advisable to either wipe it with oil or glycerin, or shake it well with water, until the lumps disappear. Such a suspension is very convenient to use, it does not deteriorate.

Up to 0.5% titanium dioxide can be added to the transparent base. Those. the purchased jar is approximately enough for 6 kg. the basics. You can also vary the haze, from a light haze to full opacity.

Source: http://www.mama-mila.ru/

Why Use Water Soluble Liquid Soap Dyes?

The answer is simple - you will have to fiddle with less staining of your soap, and you will not be tormented by diluting the same pigments in glycerin or oil. One drop of liquid dye can dye your soap the desired color without much hassle - just stir it all with a spoon or stick. Another thing, for example, with titanium dioxide (which is added to the soap base - have you seen a white base in stores? - so this is the same base only with the addition of this substance), which must first be stirred in oil (for example, in), and then for a long time and it is tedious to stir so that there are no lumps left. You will just start to get tired of this process, so it is better to buy liquid white pigment.

Of course, we would agree that they are expensive compared to their dry counterparts. But believe our experience, buy liquid dyes for soap (as well as oil dyes, depending on what purpose you are pursuing) - you will stop worrying unnecessarily, and your creations will turn out more beautiful and elegant.

Dry dyes?

Why did we refuse, for the most part, dry dyes? Very simple. We love to make swirls (read how to make swirls in soap), but one important dye fails us - black pigment. He usually fails after we start using soap. Black pigment starts to paint on the hands. The thermal dishes that you use when making soap can hardly be washed after adding this pigment, except for "Feri" so we took it and threw it away - it could not continue - besides, mold began to appear on it, although it was stored in a dry and cool place. By the way, the resulting soap (here) is beautiful, but it does not give much pleasure to use it, because when using this pigment, hands begin to get dirty, unpleasant.

What about mother-of-pearl?

Mother-of-pearl is an exception. The use of this substance is difficult, but it gives a stunning effect. To dilute the mother of pearl in soap, first stir it in oil or glycerin, then add to the melted base. Get ready for the fact that you will be stirring it for a very long time and tediously, but believe me, your efforts will pay off in full. The delicate glossy surface of the soap will amaze you and your loved ones. So don't be afraid to use mother-of-pearl - it's not that difficult.

Is it worth the trouble with glitters?

As for the glitters. Glitter is glitter and adding it to soap is easy. They do not need to be stirred in oil or glycerin; it is enough to pour them into the molten base and stir. They will disperse beautifully on soap and sparkle in the light. To achieve greater effect, add them to a transparent base with water-soluble oil colors. We used glitter in menthol soap - see the master class here.

 

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